Better Late Then Dead
by Lavenderpaw
Summary: Several months after DOTM, Sam decides to "expand" his horizons by heading out into a small town in Missouri, away from robot and city life. But old relationships and new threats will never leave him alone; especially with a bizarre Deception loose. DONE!
1. Words of invasion

**I.**

– Several months after NEST is destroyed.

Samuel J. Whitwicky stood outside the repaired building of his comrades' new home. The design was impeccable – even by Autobot standards. Enormous cubes of energon glowed in the sky-high building. To some it would appear to be a purple block castle, some people would even go so far as to say it was a monument to superiority; but Sam knew different.

"Impressive, eh?" Simmons asked as he powered his electric chair towards him. "A grand total of three shitless months of gathering energy-something or others and no man power."

"It's impressive," Sam commented with his hands in his pockets, reclining against a bent-in chain length fence. "With the Decepticons wrangled up and all Black Ops compromised now, it's not like they've got much of an option anymore." he said this wistfully. "It's all done."

"And over." The man offered his long-fingered hand to Sam.

"Sure, why not?" the twenty-one-year-old smiled slightly, accepting his friendship.

"Better believe it sucks from this day out, buddy boy."

Sam pushed himself off of the broken fence. "Excuse me?"

"Face it, pal. No more evil robots, no more super secret spy missions. What else do you have to do? Think about it. What have you lost and gained in the last four years kiddo?"

"Okay, first off, and you have to really consider this, I'm not your pal or your kiddo. And second, why would you even bring up my past history? You said it yourself, I'm a magnet for alien robots." He shrugged his arms. "Something roboty will happen to me someday."

"How many times has your family been endanger since this thing began, Sam?"

"Uh… a lot."

"How many breakups?"

Sam took a breath and exhaled as he flopped back against the chain length. "Two."

Simmons looked at him with more fixation. "And how many times have you almost lost your alien friend Bumblebee? How many times have you been disappointed? Left out? Ditched?"

The young man looked out to see Ratchet and the yellow robot exiting the new Autobot fortress from some distance away. Carly would be by later for him, as Bumblebee was the one to drive him out. Sam pondered over Simmons's words and slipped his hands inside of his pockets. Bumblebee spotted him sulking and waved at him, surprised Sam had left him.

"Ya can't keep leavin' kid." Simmons warned him and wheeled himself to his jet plane.

"But-,"

"Sam!" Bumblebee called out in his static voice, trotting over on his springy feet.

"I can't keep leaving," Sam muttered.

"Sam?"

"Uh, Bee…" He looked up at his friend. "I'm glad your new home is finished… um, I think I need to get home early tonight, I've got some things I've got to take care of with Carly."

Bumblebee didn't ask and Sam didn't answer.

**II.**

"Sam?" Carly looked up from her laptop as her boyfriend walked in.

"Hey," He greeted her listlessly, flopping down onto their queen-sized bed. The stuffed rabbit with it's foot stitched back on made his lips twitch but otherwise left him unhappy.

"What's wrong?" She flounced over in a white night slip, her blonde curls danced around as she placed her hands on his brought in knees and kissed one. "No vacancies out there?"

Her kinky behavior and British accent got him to smiling.

"There." Carly slid through his legs and rested herself on top of him. "Mm," she kissed.

"That's nice." Sam laid his hand on top of her head as she relaxed comfortably.

"Leadfoot _was _going to bring me along to see the finished Autobot home, considering the fact that you and I watched him and the other Wreckers build it." She tried talking to him.

"What? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. I missed you."

"Is Bumblebee here?"

"No, he's going to try to see if he can hook up Wifi. I guess there's interference."

Sentinel's devastation on NEST rested terribly in Sam's memory for some reason.

Why should an alien robot's destruction bum him out more then it usually did?

"Sam," Carly spoke seriously for a moment and rose up off of him. "You really need to come see this." When he resisted her pull she tore him from his depressed slump. "Now get your lazy ass up and come see this!" Sam allowed Carly to halfway push him to the laptop computer they shared. "No matter how many times I try, it won't let me through."

"It won't?" Sam tried pressing down on the little wireless mouse. It did nothing. "Weird."

"Do you think you can locate the problem?"

Try as he might, no matter how long Sam stared into the dark blue screen, he couldn't summon himself to do the menial task of getting a possibly virus-inflicted computer to work. He closed the computer's top and went to flop back onto the bed in exhaustion.

"I've got a lot on my mind," the man explained as Carly perched herself on the bedside.

"Just rest." She stroked his short brown hair. "We can always apply to actual places in person if technology's stressing you out." Her words spiked his anxiety level. "Okay?"

What neither of them saw, however, was the flicker of light inside the laptop's closed crease. "Viralvox…" a soft voice muttered from underneath the screen. "Sound virus."

Sam and Carly fell asleep while white daylight splayed through the curtained windows.

"Downloading… to connections everywhere."

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	2. Tunnel vision

**I. **– Ludlow, California…

"This is more then an extended blackout…" The President of the United States spoke in his deep voice – it was a voice that could never reach the depths of the Autobot leader's own, a young woman noted to herself. "This… my fellow Americans, is far more serious."

"A… me-me-me." The woman's toddler babbled. He was small for his age but sturdy, his brown eyes were large while his dark hair wisped out in the front, causing a thinned look.

"National security is at stake, our lives and futures are now deemed… uncertain." Mikaela Banes kept her back to the old eighties television set, feeding her son gradually. "Now, as we look out upon our nation with uncertainty, we turn to the only ones who could hope to bring us out of our dark times. They are the ones we turned on…" Obama spoke gravely.

Mikaela kept her back to the TV still, wiping off a bit of pureed yams as she did.

"…They are the ones we thought had forsook us…"

She pushed the small spoon into her happy child's lips with slow, concentrated force.

"We are…" Mikaela took a deep breath and brushed her dark brown hair back. "the ones who forsook them America." The woman turned with questionable blue eyes at the screen.

"What?" She muttered in disbelief.

"Here now, Autobot leader Optimus Prime will speak…"

Before the red flamed, blue-eyed alien could come onto her TV screen, Mikaela whipped around to cap the baby food on. She didn't need this. It took a few moments, but as soon as the robot spoke, old, familiar pain welled inside of her chest; she was torturing herself.

"Op-nus!" Her toddler declared, his little fingers curled towards the screen.

"Yes," the twenty-year-old mother said tersely. "Op-nus."

Mikaela sighed and went over to crank the knob off on the TV.

"Uh… uh… uhhh!" The boy cried before breaking out into a wailing tantrum. His mother lowered the volume and turned it back on to content her son while she checked the tannish '90's computer – Mikaela refused to use money that could go towards her son for college.

"Not like my dad ever did." She waited for the computer to boot up.

"Mama… Mama!" Her son called to her.

"Not now, baby." She narrowed her eyes as the screen flickered to a dark blue. "Whoa."

"Mama, Op-nus Pwame."

"Yeah…" Mikaela jiggled the old yellow-white mouse. "Damn." When she picked up the phone she used for her online business, there was no ring tone. "God Damnit," she tried to use the old BlackBerry she always kept in her back pocket. "What in the effing hell is…?"

"Mama!"

"Boy, Mama just said-," Just as she turned around a spark sizzled up the antennas and the TV went out. "Ah!" Mikaela yelped. Her son started crying as the lights went out in their one bedroom apartment. "Shit." She went to try to find some candles when static surged inside her old corded phone – Mikaela slowly circled around the bar-like kitchen counter.

"Mama…" her child mumbled.

"Shh," She told her son as she moved through the densely lit room. Sun from the nearby Mojave desert was all of a sudden a reassurance. "Mama has to check her cell phone…"

Mikaela placed her hand over the outdated device and turned it around to face herself.

It's strange blue screen resonated an almost hypnotic effect.

"Banes…" An eerie voice crept out of the earpiece, causing her to gasp and nearly drop the phone. "Mikaela. You… are needed. Your son… is required. And Sam, I need him."

The BlackBerry flew across the kitchen floor with a clatter as Mikaela cried out.

Her child wasn't far behind in vocalizing his distress.

As though a large key had been turned in her back, Mikaela headed into the tiny bedroom she shared with her young son. The woman ripped out an old oak dresser and dumped it's contents on her bed. It was just like always – except this time, Mikaela was a responsible parent and not a thief. She quickly retrieved the duffel bag from under her bed and placed all she could get by with for a few days inside of it. Flinging it over her shoulder, she left.

"We gotta go," she said into the darkness, picking up her moaning son.

The BlackBerry and yam-smeared highchair were left behind.

Daylight blurred her eyes as she skirted the dusty parking lot two steps at a time.

"We just get in the car," Mikaela muttered to herself as she reached her old black Mazda.

"C-car…"

"And go," She opened the unlocked backseat. "Then we… God! What'd we do next?"

"Well…"

Something shook the earth beneath her feet causing her son to wail and her to almost fall.

"That all depends on how you cooperate with us."

"Mikky." Mikaela tried to soothe him but the next instance for her reaction was inevitable.

He was big, broad and green. Two Autobots in racecar motif flanked each side of him.

"You've got to be kidding me," the woman said under her breath, holding her son back.

"How ya doin', name's Bulkhead. This here's Roadbuster and Topspin, they prefer to stay in car mode. Don't know why, not gonna ask, they're antsy without their boss, ya know."

"What do you want?"

The Autobot's glowing eyes blinked knowingly. "What'd ya think, girlie?" his enormous finger extended out. "The kid. You give him to us, we find out what Mr. Optimus Prime and company want with him, and bingo batta jingo, he's right back here. What'd ya say?"

"I say… you've been watching too much Godfather." Mikaela, balancing her son on one hip, extracted something from her pocket. "You boys might be interested in what I have."

**II. **– At the Autobot's new home, yet to be named…

"Well, here you are, pal." Simmons pulled out a small envelope.

The look the younger man gave him made him pause.

"Okay, _Sam_." He accepted a check in return for his services. "I've gone ahead and booked all the hotels Witwicky, your home has the security deposit activated, you have a full-time job as a satiation technician at the local college." Simmons almost laughed at Sam's glare.

"A janitor? Of all the jobs you could pull out of your-,"

"It pays." The man rose up on his armrests. "I know what your after Sam and with all this Decepticon nonsense of a full-scale global electronics virus, curiously exempting all radio frequencies, this is the _perfect _opportunity for you to slip away." he smiled at the secrecy.

"You never got out much as a kid, did you?" Sam said as he pulled out his key, the debit card with his transferred savings and a pack of Winter fresh. "Thanks… for all your help."

"Eh, see? Didn't I come through for you?" When the ex-agent tried to shake Sam's arm in accolades, the man moved away. "In other words," he turned to look at Bumblebee in the distance with Optimus, Racket and Leadfoot, they were all crowded by various groups of specialists ranging from government to global communications experts, tracking the virus.

Sam looked up to stare at his robot friends with a heavy heart. "In other words, what?" he said blankly. He licked his lips as a nervous sweat broke over his olive-tone complexion at the thought of what he was about to do. Sam wasn't just leaving them, he was going to be a deserter. They didn't know where he was going this time, and they could not track him.

Bumblebee turned his yellow head all that distance away to look at Sam curiously.

"No." The man whispered as he turned to look at the sandy ground.

"In other words," Simmons indicated the car his plane lowered, "We're turning your old buzzer of a bee into sweet car honey." Sam would have struck the man if it wasn't for the silver Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. "Floats like a butterfly and clocks out at 211 Sam. It hits 0-60 in 3.4 seconds. Since America is freaking out and law enforcement's busy trying to keep the peace, you'll have just enough time to leave Nevada in 1.5 minutes. And yes, this big ol' Benz packs more sting then a Camaro." He waited for Sam to get angry.

The young man did not.

"Ah… uh, uh, uh, a McLaren! You're, you're giving me a McLaren!.?"

"Uh…" The wealthy man laughed forcefully. "No. This rented McLaren was upgraded with a pre-installed automatic shutdown out of city limits. Thankfully I phoned it in last night before this Decepticon shit started. You'll be taking that old yellow scrap heap of yours from that point out." When they both noticed Bumblebee try to obtain Optimus's attention, Simmon's hit something inside of his pants pocket. "Stage 2 of Operation get-Sector7-killer-boy out of here alive is a-go." A metallic whine shrilled. Sam spun around.

"Whoa!"

He watched as the cloud wisped sky was engulfed in a mushroom of gray.

"OK, now." Simmons gave the man's arm a yank.

"Wait!" He resisted. All attention was directed towards a mountain range a fair distance away from where the robots and virus trackers were. "What's going on? What was that?"

"A distraction."

"Hey, wait!" Sam turned to argue.

"You want freedom or not?" The driver's door flew open in a smooth spin. "Move."

"Sam!" Carly yelled as she slowed her 'souvenir' Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, it ironically having been taken by her from inside the remains of her former employer's business. "You wait right there mister American Runaway Model!" Both Simmons and Sam were gaping.

"Is she a criminal, too?" the older man smirked his way.

"You-you stay there!" Sam pointed viciously at him.

"Sam!" Carly sprinted towards him in her high heels and gray corduroy dress. "Sam…"

"Carly, now look. You've got to understand, everything I'm doing is for-,"

A white letter flashed up in his face; it had a crudely drawn Autobot and bumblebee on it.

Sam swallowed nervously. "I left you a note to leave that in the garage and come here."

Agitated and frantic, Carly sliced her nail across the top and pulled out his letter. "I can't believe you're doing this!" she presented it to his face. "Running away." Sam noticed that while the second – this time not as alarming – explosion went off, everyone but Bee was watching it. The Autobot had his blue eyes glued on his friend, he was locked into Sam's own eyes. But more importantly, he was locked into his soul. "And what's this mean!.?"

Carly interrupted machine and man's memorization.

" 'You will always _bee_ my friend. And then you draw another bee! Is that meant to be clever Samuel J. Witwicky?" Sam didn't have to look up again to know he was in for it.

"Get in the car."

"What!.?"

"I've got us new jobs, a new house, everything. I-," Sam looked into her eyes. "I need you, Carly I love you." When she protested still he pressed his mouth against her own.

"Sam…" the woman blinked back tears. "I don't know what to say…"

The man breathed in and out through his nose firmly, "Say you'll come."

She smiled a huge smile, her white teeth gleamed in the sun. "Oh… I-,"

"Good!" Sam hauled her towards the car – secretly cursing the model of car his girlfriend drove because it was the replacement of his rented one – and halfway threw her in. "I'm sorry!" he apologized as he nodded to Simmons and pried the already closing door down.

"Sam, I-!" Carly struggled in her black leather and silver lined seat. "_This_… this is nice."

"Yeah, well." He started the ignition and powered the vehicle. "Don't expect much more."

'I'm sorry Bee…' Sam thought briefly.

The car was not sorry.

"WHOA!" He screamed out loud as the McLaren charged forward, hydroplaning the sand.

All worry and anxiety left Sam as it never had before.

Maybe starting a new life with Carly somewhere was just what he needed.

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	3. Bait Human

**I.**

Mikaela pulled out a purple, cloth-wrapped item. "Do you know what this is?"

"Uh…" Bulkhead scratched at his head. "Not a clue, girlie."

"It's the last piece of the AllSpark," She held it up to the sunlight, "Extracted by Optimus after killing Megatron." The woman waved it back and forth temptingly. "I could give it to you if you let me go," Mikaela poised it to stab. "Or I could use it to turn you into scrap."

The Autobot let out a raucous of a laugh.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha! Girl, we weren't there. But we know the last AllSpark shard was used _on_ Optimus to bring him back. Now," He took a descending step forward. "Let's see, okay?"

Mikaela dropped her head and extended her bare arm out. "I guess you were too smart for me…" she held it out. When Bulkhead chuckled his consent to that she struck his fingers.

"YAH!" He hollered, shaking his massive tan hand which jiggled under his green armor.

The taser dropped to the ground as Mikaela threw her car door open, placed her son in the child's seat beside her and scrambled over to put her silver key into the ignition – it gave a disgruntled chug but Mikaela kept on turning it. She tried starting it up several more times. Unbeknownst to her, the window rolled down and the car details began to change subtly.

"Mama?"

"Not now."

Her young son peered up and saw that Bulkhead was leaning his way.

"Mama…"

She didn't respond.

The robot waved at him.

"Uh," He whined and hid his face.

Giving his head a scratch, Bulkhead noticed that the child was popping bubbles.

"Hmm," the Autobot thought a moment before beginning to spew black oil from his mouth. When he got the little boy's attention, he started to make the oil into his own version of popping bubbles. One particular bubble lingered a moment before bursting.

"Heh-heh," His young observer giggled. "Heh-heh-heh!"

"Why won't this start!.?" Mikaela said angrily.

"Mama…" Her son pointed out at the ebony coated Bulkhead. "A-ta-ba."

"Yes, Mikky. Autobot." She kept trying to force the car to start, denying it was inevitable.

"Ba-ba-ba." The child said to the still present robot.

"Ba-ba-ba…? Oh, you mean Bumblebee!"

"Ba-ba-ba!"

"No, no, I'm Bulkhead."

"Ba-hell."

"No, _Bulkhead._"

"Bullhead!"

With a ragged sigh, the Autobot touched his oily face and gave it a shake.

"Heh-heh… Bullhead!"

"Close enough." He conceded.

"Start… _start!_" Mikaela fevered on. When it stopped making noise altogether the young mother let out a frustrated grunt and slammed her palm against the car. "Shit!" she yelled.

It was a mistake.

"Mama!" Mikky next pointed out the two sports car outfitted Autobots. "Cars."

They moved in closer to distract the child at Bulkhead's gesturing.

"Ahh!" The only recognizable part of Mikaela's Mazda – the wheel – rammed at her. She managed to dive out of the way and grab her son. "No!" it transformed without warning.

"I wouldn't hit Eelshock girlie, she gets a little _ill_-tempered if you know what I mean."

Mikaela looked up at the Autobot in terror to which he took on a more concerned look.

She was genuinely frightened even as she knew better then to be.

"Lady, it's all right. We're Autobots, remember? Optimus, Ratchet…"

The woman clung to her son. "Please don't hurt us," she said irrationally.

Mikky looked up at her and touched her dark cheek. "Mama," he soothed, "Mama…."

"God," She whispered to her child. "You have no idea what you're saying."

Her son could never know how hard life had been since her last encounter with robots.

Bulkhead drew nearer but with more consideration for the wide-eyed mother.

"Buckle up, sit still and keep your hands in the Autobot at all times," He informed the two dutifully with just a hint of his former humor intact, "Eelshock," he gave the roof a sturdy pat which shook the entire frame. The child gave a giggle, his mother breathed erratically.

"Bulkhead?" Topspin spoke up.

"Any more trouble with'er?" Roadbuster chimed in with a vague Scottish accent.

"Not a one. Now we better head back before our collective bosses blast our bolts off."

"So why are you called Eelshock?" Mikaela dared to ask the car as Bulkhead's back up Autobots flanked them on each side. She asked this softly, but she knew she was heard.

The taser sizzled a little from where it lay on the dusty cement driveway.

Bulkhead got into position so as to form an arrowed quartet, took one look at the cheap apartment and blew it up. Mikaela gasped loudly as the Autobot chuckled and rotated his massive body parts inward and out to form a monster truck; a big green and tan Silverado. She looked over to see if her son had seen but the obscure window of the car had slid up. As the sun started to arch down, signaling late mid-day, the Autobots started their course.

"Huh," Mikaela leaned back against her seat, folding her arms in an unimpressed fashion.

"Mama?" her seat-belted one-and-a-half year old mumbled curiously.

"I'm still not sure what's so special about this Mazda," She said as they were driven to the road. The woman reeled back in her seat as streams of black cords exited different parts of the interior and slithered past her and her son. Mikky exclaimed in fascination as they both watched what vaguely looked like spark plugs leaking out from three car hoods, the tinted windows made it difficult to tell but Mikaela thought she saw all of their different circuitry start to mesh together. A second later, Eelshock buzzed to life. Everything inside the new Mazda glowed a muted purple as the other Autobots absorbed her powerhouse electricity.

"Spark-spark."

'Huh, druggies…' Mikaela thought just before something occurred to her.

"It was you before, wasn't it?" She said. "You shorted out my apartment! I blamed that God Damn Decepticon virus." At this mention, everyone surged like lightening towards their next destination: Mission City. This, of course, was where the Autobot's home was.

**II.**

– In the Nevada desert…

Carly and Sam had gotten away long after the third explosion was counteracted by a put out Leadfoot. Bumblebee realized in that split second that he could never hope to catch them on foot, or even in his car mode. Thinking on his feet – quite literally – the robot noticed that Simmons was eye-balling the Mercedes left behind by Carly and gave it a quick scan. The man barely had time to wheel away as Bumblebee blasted the car into oblivion and took off at an accelerated speed of eighty miles per hour in two seconds.

Simmons watched agape as the yellow 2012 Mercedes followed in furious pursuit.

…

"Sam," Carly glanced over at him.

"Carls." He barely inched a glance her way, hoping she wouldn't hate the pet name.

Though, if Sam were being honest with himself, he was hoping she wouldn't leave him.

"Why are you doing this?" the woman reasoned.

Sam shuddered breathily before explaining in his blunt manner. "Because with me around, there's robot threats. With me dropped off the face of the earth, there's zero robot threats. Zilch. The Matrix removed all traces of AllSpark from my body and they can't track me by any satellites with global tech down," he sighed. "No one has to die if I'm gone, Carly."

She rested a hand on his shoulder. "Ever stop to think we're alive with you around?"

His eyes veered left and grew wide. "No, we can't stop."

"Sam, what are you talking about? There's nothing wrong with stopping to think."

"Just sit back and enjoy the ride."

"What?" Carly started to turn around.

Sam caught her arm. "No, DON'T!"

"Samuel J. Witwicky, get your hands off of me!" she narrowly missed slapping his cheek.

But Carly screamed as a yellow blur came roaring up on them. The man jerked his head around to see who he knew at first glance was Bumblebee. Sam tried to outmaneuver his friend but the Autobot had no interest in his crazed zigzagging. Instead he waited for just the right moment where the backside of Sam's car was the most exposed and mercilessly nosed it. Carly shrieked his name just as they went spinning out of control. A row of four clear buttons caught Sam's eye as he struggled to center the car again. Bumblebee flew in for the 'kill' and just a moment before his victory should have been assured, the car halted.

Bumblebee jerked to a halt as well in obvious surprise of Sam's performance.

The man and woman looked at each other, down at the car and then sped away.

Never one to back down, Bumblebee continued his pursuit.

"How did you do that!.?"

"I don't know!" Sam shouted. "I guess four years of near death vehicular experiences!"

He looked down at the row of four buttons and tested one. A splatter of oil spattered out, which Bumblebee expertly dodged. Sam then tried for several more rounds, well aware of the fact that their little detour was going to make it harder for him to reach his old car; the one that looked like Bumblebee. Licking his lips, the man pushed down on the button with all his might. Oil squirted in cascades from the back and fanned over the pursing Autobot.

"Yeah-HAH!" Sam pumped his fist, looking back with a wide grin.

He noticed Carly's narrowed eyes.

"I… I was just happy that the oil slick button worked."

"Right. So what now genius?"

"We drive back, hop in, take off and hopefully Bee gets the hint," Just as Sam was ready to do a Uey, Bumblebee emerged from the fountain of black, slick but mobile, and thrust himself out to do a huge belly slide. Sam freaked out and punched down on the gas pedal.

Two giant hands reached out then and lifted the revving vehicle off of the ground.

"Bee… _Bee_!"

The Autobot turned the car around to peer inside. Sam, however, dove down below the wheel. Bumblebee's miffed blue optics took in a stone still Carly. "Sam…" she trembled.

"Give me a second…" He slipped his hand up and pushed down on the car horn, causing a loud, shrill sound to blare. Bumblebee shook his head wildly. "Sorry Bee," Sam said with guilt. He reappeared in the driver's seat and turned his head to look back – unfortunately not fast enough to escape his friend's hurt eyes, and placed the '09 McLaren into reverse.

The car slipped off of Bumblebee's greasy fingers and landed on the earth with a thud.

"Ah!" Carly yelled. Everything in the big expensive car jiggled around.

"Sorry, babe." Sam continued to drive backwards. There was a quickening of his heart. The look he had seen was unbearable, maybe no one else recognized the significance of what Sam was doing – but Bumblebee did. That was why he couldn't turn back now, he couldn't admit that he was wrong about his decision, the man could only further act out.

A few seconds later Sam glimpsed Bumblebee shake the oil from his body and transform back into the faster car. Wincing, Sam slowed to seventy, then to sixty and fifty, tried to turn the car around to drive forward and found himself at the mercy of his first car in his girlfriend's car mode. It was a three time whammy; his own friend pinning the passenger side of his hood, his friend's model (given by Carly's treacherous ex-boss) and of course the third; Bumblebee had dented his rental car. These, though, didn't matter much at all.

The car skidded across the sand just before stopping at the edge of the old Sector Seven entrance. Sam looked at Carly and tugged at her arm. She looked back long and hard into Sam's eyes. Their breaths were the only thing heard besides the McLaren getting crushed.

"I love you," Sam said.

"I love you too," she assented, her eyes were lost in thought.

"Carly?"

"Sam, you've gotta face him."

"No! No-no-no."

"_Sam_."

"No," He opened the door as Bumblebee backed up, "Come with me," the man motioned.

Carly whispered his name angrily one more time before sliding out of the McLaren with him. The two headed behind a tollbooth with Sam leading the way before they stopped and noticed yellow police tape on each side of a long row of bulky construction barrels.

Carly pulled back.

"Sam, your car's right there. You know, the Bumblebee impersonator."

"No," he turned to her. "I've got a better idea." Sam saw that the remote car had stopped.

They fled to a pair of orange barrels twenty or so spaces away before the man motioned for Carly to hide under one. She bared her teeth in refusal before an enormous semi-truck convinced her to follow Sam's lead and masquerade as one of the annoying auto dividers.

The irony of what the barrels meant and what he was doing didn't dawn on him.

A mechanical sound emitted not thirty feet away.

"Bumblebee." Optimus's deep voice asked in concern. "Why did you leave us?"

"Sir…" the Autobot spoke, causing one of the barrels to quiver slightly. "Sam."

There was a static in the air and the hidden man felt completely visible to them.

The Autobot leader deciphered Bumblebee's meaning. "It is for Sam to decide what he will do. He will always be our friend, our comrade…" the robot's blue eyes roved along the many rows of barrels. "But he is not one of us. His feeling of his self-worth may well still be in doubt. Yet he cannot find it amongst us, even as he has always been part of us."

"He's here." Bumblebee told his leader softly.

There was a long moment of thought. "Take some time, but please return soon."

Optimus reverted back to his truck mode and drove away.

…

An hour later, hot and tired, Sam and Carly stumbled out from under their hiding places.

"You…" the woman pointed at him exhaustedly. "Are by far the oddest man I've yet to meet." Sam grinned before looking out to see that they were miraculously by themselves.

"I guess he left," the man said.

"I guess," Carly took him by the arm and pulled him close. "Your poor heart…" she said as she pressed her ear to his chest. The sun was setting in the west, casting gorgeous rays of orange across the desert. "Let's go then," She smiled up at him with bright eyes. He let a smile cross his dry lips before enveloping Carly with a warm, sensual kiss. "Mm… Sam."

"Yeah?" the man pulled back reluctantly.

"Drinks?" She indicated the shut down car. "Any?"

"We'll get some in the next town," He started over for the Bumblebee look-a-like.

"Uh, Sam!" Carly stumbled after him in her pumps. "How'd you know that's not a trap?"

"Look, this piece of crap is not a trap," The man pulled the car door open and indicated for Carly to get in the passenger's. "Even when Bee was one he didn't look _this _crappy."

She shook her head of curls incredulously. "Really, Sam? Are you ever wrong? I'm telling you one thing now, I'm not going to be seen in that… that jalopy! We're taking _that_ one."

Sam barely bothered the car with a glance. "Carly please," he slipped into the driver's seat and patted the one next to him. "Get-," the car door slammed instantly and locked him in.

"Sam." Carly said in disbelief.

"Bee…" That's when the man noticed that the top of the toll booth had been broken off and that ten of the cones had been knocked over – it was Bumblebee's warning to them.

Before Sam could protest further, he was being whisked away into the setting sun.

…

Carly flung the door of the McLaren open and tried to start the engine.

It wouldn't start.

"Damn."

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	4. Chink in the heart: pt 1 of 2

**I. ****– **On a highway somewhere in Utah…

Sam sat in stony silence as Bumblebee drove the extremely fast car at the normal speed limit; through the night and tinted windows Sam believed he saw sixty-five. The radio in the car that was normally lit up with life and music was just as mute as he was. If Bee'd ever been more angered with him, the man could not recount it. Sam took a deep breath.

"Bee," He made sure to sit as far back as he could. "I need something to drink."

The car didn't answer him.

"Look, I know what I did. I know I didn't tell you face-to-face like several years ago, I left a note with Carly…" A tension at that name flared. "I know she's not Mikaela, but humor me. She's a good woman and I really trusted her with telling you. But, Bee, all I want you to know is… that I'm really, _really_ thirsty!" He left out what he really meant.

Carly was never going to speak to him again.

The McLaren made a quick decision and sped off the freeway near a small gas station.

"Thank you. Thank you for coming to your senses…" Sam tried to pull the silver handle open; it wouldn't budge. "This is the part where you let me out and wait till I get done."

With reluctance, the door gave way.

"You're not the boss of me, Bee." The man told him, stomping out and staring down at the shiny hood of his car. "And when I get back, you and I are going to have a serious-,"

He stopped short at a lanky man with a trucker's cap staring at them.

"Look, do you mind?"

"Whoa…" Sam realized then that the man wasn't paying attention to his ranting.

More obviously, Sam's ranting to his _car_.

"Yeah, yeah. Just leave it alone." He turned to give Bumblebee a firm look and went into the shop. A guy in his early-to-mid thirties was reading a magazine behind the big counter.

"Can I help you?" His eyes didn't look up.

"Yeah, hi, um… you got a bathroom in this place?"

"First door on the right." He pointed absently.

"Yeah, see…" Sam looked anxiously at the awaiting car behind a carousal of Utah knick-knacks. "If you could just hold onto this…" He slipped the man two thousand dollar bills. "And I'll just take these." he pit pocketed the man; something he'd learned from Mikaela three years ago – and took off with the clerk's keys even as he shouted for Sam to return.

The engine of the yellow McLaren roared to life and charged right into the store without hesitation, Sam looked back at the plowed down merchandise and vaguely registered that it appeared to be something out of a movie. He clutched onto the bulbous door knob and flung the metal framed rectangle open. His breaths staggered in and out heavily as he left Bumblebee behind. Sam ran up to an old rusted black car, gave the key a firm jab and had the door open as his friend smashed through the shop's roof. With one final intake of air, the man turned to face Bumblebee under the star-filled sky – talking was now inevitable.

Sam exhaled calmly. "What do you want me to say?" he asked.

**II. **Back in Nevada…

A holographic screen inside the cubed castle showed different types of viruses.

"This is pointless," Leadfoot complained as Ratchet viewed legends and old accounts. He turned to the approaching Bulkhead back from his duty. "Your pals here can't keep it up."

"Ratchet and Eelshock." He informed the Wrecker leader.

"Whatever. She won't have it running by tomorrow." Leadfoot indicated a row of cables.

The somewhat stouter automaton folded his arms. "Well, it's not like it took all that long."

"Did you follow the route Ratchet calculated for you?"

"It was a rough guesstimation! This isn't the internet he's on, it's a limited amount of more or less archaic knowledge of Decepticon viral infections. There's no cures on it, there's no possible ways to track or even find out how the virus arrived here." Bulkhead told his ally.

The word 'friends' didn't quite describe the twos' feelings towards each other.

Ratchet remained glued to his screen.

"You know I already lost three of my friends before arriving here," the green and tan alien reminded Leadfoot. "Meanwhile, most of your _team_ hasn't even reached this blue marble."

"Hey, at least I know how to treat my _friends_. You're lucky you still have a leader here."

Ratchet finally took notice; the screen blinked off. Bulkhead saw the brief shadow of lost fall over his face. Eelshock transformed into her slender figure. The Autobot knew all at once what she was thinking; Arcee, her sisters and Eelshock had been friends long ago.

"Make that six," Bulkhead pounded his fist into his hand.

"Seven," Ratchet lamented. "Bumblebee has left us… Sorry, eight, if you count Sam."

He and Eelshock came to stand behind the hefty Autobot.

Topspin and Roadbuster instantly appeared, flanking their own rotund leader.

"Enough!" Optimus's stern voice kept them at bay.

"Sir," Bulkhead turned to his leader. "Where's Bumblebee? I haven't seen him in ages."

The Prime did not address that question, instead he looked at the Autobots as a whole.

"The time for separate thinking is over," He took them all in slow back and forth motion. "If we're to have any chance to decipher this viral mystery, only unity will aid us. We've lost many…" His blue eyes pierced into each of theirs. "But together we can find a way."

"I forgot how motivational he was," Bulkhead whispered to Leadfoot.

"What I don't get is why are we wasting our time on Sam's Gary Stu God baby?"

The others looked at him.

"I'm just sayin', this kid better not have superpowers or I'm done."

"We do believe the child may have fragments of the AllSpark inside of him based on one of Ratchet's theories, which he'll disclose to you all at the proper time." Optimus looked to Leadfoot and Bulkhead especially now. "I'll need you to procure the child's mother as well as the child after they've been sterilized, we don't need any foreign contaminates on

the energon." He looked to the awaiting Autobots. "You four, try to get along. Ratchet."

"Yes, sir."

"That applies to you too."

The medic looked away. "Humph."

"There's no telling how scared the child must be, let's try our best not to frighten him."

… Outside the Autobot's home…

Mikyle burst out into a stream of giggles as an epoxy of special chemicals layered him and his mother. Mikaela kept her eyes on the ceiling of the temporary housing barracks. From the outside white half-circles made long rows as NEST, global communication specialists, a few other key organizations and whoever else worked together to uncover the truth of the worldwide technology virus; and to get everyone back to their huge cyber existences.

Mikaela herself was less then thrilled to be immersed back into a social situation.

"Hi," A familiar voice accosted her.

The woman turned to see Lennox for the first time since she had broken up with Sam.

"Hi." She smiled wryly, turning so a chemical specialist could coat her backside.

"I understand this is your son," he looked down at the prancing little boy inside the clear but audible duct. "He looks a lot like someone…" His eyes roved up. The man had on a white lab coat, unlike his usual camouflage attire, but this was a 'laboratory' setting too.

"Let's not go into that," Mikaela flashed the man coating her with a classic smoldering look and he backed off. Picking up her son in her bare arms, the woman made sure that there was an air of distant, sexual appeal as she took long-legged strides to exit – It was for intimidation, of course, and it always worked. "So, what'd you want?" she inquired.

Lennox wasn't intimidated.

"Optimus requested that you enter the Autobot's home alone… and with the boy."

"Mikyle." Her flippant attitude dissolved as she struck him with an intent look.

The man watched as Mikaela and her son were handed their sanitized clothes.

"Be safe," he told her.

"We'll see," She said.

The truth was, Mikaela could never tell anyone how very unsafe she felt.

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	5. Chink in the heart: pt 2 of 2

**I. ****– **Inside the energon fortress, night…

Mikaela took deep, slow breaths as she entered the glowing block structure with her little seventeen-month-old son in her arms, the two took all of it's otherworldliness in with awe. They were almost around the corner when two stout Autobots came to stand before them.

This caused the woman to step back and gasp at their guard-like poses.

"Bullhead!" Mikyle exclaimed up to the one on the right.

"Hey-hey, kid," Bulkhead laughed heartily.

Mikaela didn't realize her son had slipped from her arms until a giant hand scooped down to pick him up. She watched anxiously as the Autobot lifted her only child to meet his blue eyes, taking a friendly interest in him. The one on the left watched with a reserved glower.

Somehow, Mikaela felt a connection with the unfamiliar Autobot.

"Are you bein' good for your mom?" Bulkhead asked the boy mock sternly.

"Mama," Mikyle turned to wave at her and the Autobot placed him back on the ground.

"Yes, Mikky." She mumbled.

"Autaba," The child pointed at his newest acquaintance.

"Leadfoot." He said tonelessly.

"Leftfoot!"

"No, _Lead_-," Bulkhead gave the other Autobot a few chops on the arm with his hand.

"Uh-uh." He said.

Mikyle giggled and stumbled away from his hosts.

"Mikky." Mikaela started to call for him.

"Hey… kid!" Bulkhead watched him circle around his feet. "Where ya goin'?"

The toddler continued to laugh as he scrambled to the metal heels of the Autobot and peered around. Behind them, two large conversing forms made him shrink back. Inside Mikyle's young mind, the familiar flash of red and blue registered with encouragement.

"Mikky!" Someone called to him.

The child quietly came back the way he had journeyed.

"Mikky!" This time the voice was filled with a note of alarm.

"Mama?" He toddled forward to see his mother, her arms were opened wide for him.

"Come here," she smiled.

"Mama!" Mikyle ran straight into her embrace and dug his nose in her hair.

Mikaela laughed softly, running her fingers over his cheek. When she looked up many all-too familiar blue eyes were looking her way – Ratchet, of course, a few Autobots that she knew were not Ironhide, Mudflap, Skids or any other alien she was familiar with, but then there was the Autobot Mikaela knew would never be defeated; and he was looking at her.

'Sam,' She thought, suddenly rendered depressed as she saw their two friends alone. What was more depressing was the Autobots who were absent. The red and blue leader stepped forward, Mikaela watched anxiously as Bulkhead and Leadfoot respectfully backed away.

The two exchanged quick whispers with Bulkhead asking a question.

"It was the last AllSpark shard that brought the boss back to life, right?"

"No, you dunderhead." Leadfoot said. "It was the Matrix of Leadership."

"I _knew _I should have asked the boss firsthand."

Mikaela's breath caught in her throat as his prominence rung in her head and heart.

His name was… his name _was_…

"Opnus Pahm!" Mikyle declared excitedly and then, tugging on the ends of her hair as he bounced up and down, shouted, "Opnus Pham! Opnus Pham!" the boy started to shiver.

"Yes, baby," She affirmed to him as he dug himself a hole in her shoulder. "Optimus."

The robot knelt down to her level.

"Mikaela," He spoke her name cordially.

The woman composed herself. "Optimus," she said, feeling her chest knot up.

"It's been a long time."

Mikyle very slowly peered around his mother's hair.

Optimus's eyes fell to him. "Mikyle James Banes," he said with expectation.

The child hid from him again.

"Say hi." Mikaela encouraged.

"Opnus Pham?" Mikyle's brown eyes sought him.

His towering hero came down readily. "_Optimus Prime_." He corrected.

The boy giggled and hid a third time, flashing his crooked baby teeth in a grin.

Mikaela grinned a little too.

"What is he doing?"

"He's… a fan of yours." The woman admitted reluctantly.

Optimus moved on to the point of their meeting, asking:

"I hope the damaged relationship you share with Sam doesn't affect our own."

Mikaela was unexpectedly affected by the Autobot's words. "No, of course not." she said.

He nodded, but his attention diverted to a partially obscured Mikyle. "The child…?"

"He's hiding from you," Mikaela answered, not bothering to hide her amusement.

"Why is he hiding?" Optimus was quite confused.

"He's a toddler." She smiled up at him, explaining. "Not really a child, not totally a baby."

"I see." He stood up and stepped away.

The Autobot leader headed back towards the others when the toddler called out.

"Op-nus!"

Caught between ignoring his confusion and addressing his curiosity, Optimus looked back.

The little boy placed his face in his hands and brought them down quickly.

Mikaela only laughed and rubbed her nose against his olive-toned cheek.

"The byproduct of his mother and father's conception." Ratchet said as Optimus passed.

"Hmm…"

"After we scan for traces of the AllSpark in him, could I maybe continue my study…?"

He was given a look.

"Bye, Opnus!" Mikyle called out. When the Transformer turned he saw the child wave.

That was his signal to head out in the opposite direction.

Therefore, he didn't see his young fan rest his head against his mother. "Bye Opnus."

**II. **– In Utah…

Bumblebee didn't speak, not even through his radio.

"Bee," Sam said without having much to say. "We've been through this before…"

The Autobot stepped out of the wreckage – people scattered screaming – and came to stand before his friend. They looked at each other through the lit darkness, the yellow robot's blue eyes were probing and worried; there were no words needed for the two.

Yet, Sam felt there was so much on his part to explain.

"Not tonight, Bee." He rested his back against the black car, clutching at his head.

"One night," The Autobot said.

Sam looked up at him with his guard down. "One night," he consented.

The man felt himself grow calm as he watched Bumblebee change into his first earthly form. It was bizarre, Sam would have thought he'd forgotten it, but he instantly took to the 1970's Camaro from nearly five years earlier. The door opened for him in invitation.

Swallowing back a wad of emotion, Sam complied with the request and slid in. With sudden exhaustion the man fell against the seats and hugged himself. In the dark Sam could vaguely make out the old knobs on the radio, up above the dashboard his brown eyes took in the little bumblebee air freshener dangling innocently on the tiny rear-view.

"What happened to me," he said in a quiet voice. There wasn't an answer he knew of.

This was a question he expected answered, because Bumblebee wasn't talking to him.

"Talk to me." Sam begged, he cried a little as he confessed. "Please, Bee, I'm so totally, absolutely confused. I don't know what to do anymore. I can't decide what's best in my life." he buried his face in his hands and sobbed tearlessly. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Bee."

The radio stayed off but the Camaro started up and coasted away just as police arrived.

After his admission Sam fell asleep, he was finally peaceful after revealing his vulnerability.

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	6. Drawing the line: pt 1 of 2

**I. **Nevada, in the barracks…

"I want to know when my son and I can return home."

The woman with sandy blonde hair looked up at her. "I'm sorry," she said. "We've let you run the premises without much introduction…" She saw her halfhearted excuse would not work on the irate mother. "Ma'am, I'm sorry, there's really nothing I can tell you further."

"So are you from Australia or something?" Mikaela turned her attention to the towering purple citadel in the distance, folding her arms in the mid-morning heat. "Britain maybe?"

"Well," The woman smiled nervously, "I was involved with the aliens four years prior."

This knowledge made the younger woman nod interestedly. "I was too. There's _nothing_?"

"Like I said, Miss Banes, the Autobots and government have everything classified."

Mikaela took a breath, "Right, that's part of the reason Sam Witwicky and I broke up. It was never that I didn't care about the welfare of the world, but after everything started to go to the government, well," she sneered slightly, "I couldn't expose our son to all that."

Maggie eyed the brown-haired woman tentatively. "Does Sam… know about his child?"

The intelligence agent was called away just as another blonde girl approached Mikaela.

"Ugh," She groaned.

"Mikaela," The girl spoke – rather accusingly – in a British accent. "Mikaela Banes?"

"Who wants to know?" It was a chore to bite her tongue in resistance.

"I just want you to know that this is all your fault and Sam _never_ would have left if you hadn't gotten involved with him again!" Mikaela was stunned a moment before gaping.

"Well!" She smiled with mock surprise, then quickly dropped the act. "You're _it_?"

"Yes, I am." The girl said through bared teeth.

"Huh. You're dating Sam now… how old are you again?"

"Twenty-three. Not that it's any of your concern."

Mikaela bared her own teeth in a forced smile, saying:

"_Well_… I'm twenty, so that makes you three years older than me."

"So?" The woman got right in her face.

Mikaela quickly did the same. "So they say _death _comes in threes."

They went at each other angrily. While personnel on sight ran to intervene, Mikaela was able to lift the skimpy, pale-skinned girl off of her feet and handle her with some effort in the air. She was laughing to herself a little as she sat her back down and was pulled back.

"What should I expect from a man woman."

"You sick bitch!" Mikaela snapped at her, unfortunately too far to spit in her face.

"You're the sick one, dumping Sam the way you did."

Men restrained their bodies but not their mouths.

"It was the only way I'd have a clean break!"

"After I swept up the dirt you left behind… you told Sam you aborted his son!"

Mikaela strained to look away. "I did it to give my son a normal life," she explained.

"You ruined Sam's life! Ruined mine and now ruined your son's."

Enraged, the young mom broke away. "I'm a good mother!"

"_Good_!" Pale-skinned blonde heckled her one more time. " 'Cause you'll never see that child of yours again! The Autobots will find something wrong with him and experiment."

"My son's just fine!"

The woman was being led away.

Mikaela was left gawking, her blue eyes wide with unformed tears.

… Inside the Autobot's home…

"The time is now, Optimus." Ratchet explained, regarding the young child Bulkhead and Eelshock were hovering over. "If we're to solve this crisis, we must determine if the child has anything to do with the Decepticon virus. Mikaela had intercourse with Sam over two years ago." Optimus was still intently listening to him. "She held the shard in an unnatural place…" They both drew back at this. "It could be life or death for the humans, Optimus."

"If this virus depletes anymore of their resources."

Ratchet nodded. "Radio waves are the only things remaining unaffected. I've managed to decode that this viral infection is partial to sound, but why it cannot penetrate it's ultimate source of power is a mystery… one that may be solved with mining the young boy for it."

"It's time then." Optimus declared.

The Autobot leader came to stand before the designated chaperones. They looked at each other, looked down at Mikyle and fell back. Around them purple energy swirled in spirals and thin twists of tendrils, Optimus had to wonder if Sam's son carried similar imprinting.

He knelt down before the boy. "Child…?"

Mikyle looked up at him and his brown eyes filled with excitement. "Opnus!"

"Mikyle… would you like to see your father?"

The toddler picked up a piece of paper he'd been coloring on.

"Opy!"

Bulkhead chuckled softly to Eelshock and Ratchet. "Opy."

Mikyle held up a picture of scribbled red and blue with green smudges around it.

"Go boom!"

Optimus was at a loss.

"Children communicate in rudimentary vocabulary at this age, Optimus." Ratchet said.

"Boom boom!" Mikyle indicated the Autobot's arm.

"Oh… you mean my weapon?" Optimus examined his appendage.

Bulkhead extended his arm out, forming his enormous cannon. "I see what he's sayin' ."

Ratchet reached out and yanked the Autobot's arm off with his eyes on his holographic database. Eelshock shook her head. Mikyle covered his face with his hands, making an attempt to elicit a play session with his idol. Optimus held no part in the child's playful endeavors but instead opened his hand to receive him. Mikyle got up and obeyed him.

"Bring him into the middle of the room." Ratchet instructed.

The child looked up at Optimus with his tongue pressed against his teeth. "Opy."

There was a moment of anticipation. Optimus merely stood back and looked away.

To be continued...

**A/N:** Oh yes, as requested, Mikyle's name is pronounced Muh-Ky-Yul.

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	7. Drawing the line: pt 2 of 2

**I. **Late morning somewhere in Kansas, one state from Missouri…

Under a dilapidated gas station overhang, Sam lingered over Bumblebee with a wire brush and a can of recently purchased turpentine. He let his solemn eyes roam the top of his first car; surprisingly, he remembered the hood more clearly now then five years earlier. Before when Sam had looked at the paint job it had disgusted him – oddly enough, he preferred it now. Bumblebee hadn't changed back all night and had eventually given Sam total control.

"Change back," The man ordered.

There was no sign that the car was alive.

"I'm not doing this without your consent…"

It wasn't just that Bumblebee wasn't responding, he was lifeless. This made Sam sweat.

His car was devoid of his spark.

"I'm doing it!" He uncapped the bottle and leaned forward, readying his circle of silver.

The car suddenly gave a spurt of noise, the engine sounded calm and accepting, irritating Sam nonetheless, as it generated just enough power to drive the chipping '76 Camaro out into the baking Kansas sun in the middle of nowhere. Sam followed suit, scrambling a bit.

"What'd you doing!.?" He called out in helpless confusion.

Bumblebee seemed to just center himself with the still rising sun before coming to a stop. His friend was breathing heavily to keep up with him despite his overall good fitness. The car made no movement or indication that he was going to do anything else as Sam came.

"What'd you want?" the man was worried and doubtful. "Do you want me to do this? Do you want to go with me and have your skin removed? No one said you had to follow me."

The car remained stationary.

"Optimus didn't say so," Sam argued, sounding ragged. "I didn't say so either, Bee."

He stood there in the hot sun for five long minutes, contemplating what he had exhausted to Bumblebee as necessary – the removal of his paint, his skin, part of his identity. He was ready to start over and give Bumblebee his life once and for all, but the Autobot, being the natural snoop and stalker that he had a tendency to be, refused to listen or explain himself.

Sam quietly and miserably poured a concentrated but unseen amount of turpentine on the wire brush in his right hand. He didn't show any emotion as he began to scrub the top side of the empty passenger's seat. The old yellow paint came off easily, flaking and peeling as he worked with rather grim but determined effort. Sweat began to ring Sam's arms and legs before finally it was beading all traces of his body, there wasn't a dry spot anyplace under his clothes or otherwise by the time the sun was starting to arch to the right. Even thirst and exhaustion couldn't stop Sam as he worked meticulously to remove the paint.

"Done," he finally said, stepping back.

Horrible red and brown marks with no stray yellow pieces showed intensely now. When Sam looked down at his arms he saw that he, too, had red and brown sun burns along his skin and cargo-short-exposed legs. He looked back up in disbelief at what he'd done and let out a loud scream. The man threw the two items across the land and kicked at the dirt. He repeated this furiously, letting out a few more screams as guilt and grief shook him. It wasn't just from his current actions or even the events of Chicago and Sentinel. It was for everything. Everything Sam had done wrong or misjudged came back to him in great pain.

The Camaro suddenly made it's normal changing noises.

With a shake of his shoulders, Sam turned his back to Bumblebee.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered.

"I'll finish it," Bee told him in his crackling voice.

"What?.!" Sam whirled around and took notice of him attempting to remove his insignia.

"I'm no longer…" his blue eyes grew saddened. "A part of them."

"No!" his friend raced over to stop him. "That's it! You go back to them, beg Optimus for forgiveness and tell them that it was all my fault." Sam shook his head, pleading. "_Please_."

Bumblebee didn't say anything of his motives, he just stood there staring at the man.

"Forget what Optimus said," Sam explained with his eyes dead centered in the Autobot's. "Just because I'm not made of metal, that doesn't mean I'm not part of you. Just because we've…" he choked back a shudder. "turned our backs on everyone. That doesn't mean you can't go back Bee." Bumblebee walked forward in thought as Sam tried to keep up.

"Sam…" He finally stopped and turned to his friend logically.

"It's not too late!" Sam said. "If you remove that symbol, I'll kill myself."

Bumblebee was left stunned.

"I'm not kidding, Bee. You did _not _betray them."

"I disobeyed." The Autobot clarified.

"_Why_?" Sam knew that he wasn't the reason – even though there was nothing Bumblebee wouldn't do for Sam, he knew that the Autobot would never choose him over his robotic brethren. Sam accepted this as it was just the way Autobots were. "Can't you say why?"

In fact, the man held this belief with respect and honor, despite everything else.

"Not now," Bumblebee said to him, softening, "Let's just enjoy our time together."

Sam gave an embarrassed smile. "Okay," he relented quietly.

The Autobot resumed his now more noticeable form and opened the passenger's door.

Apparently irony was Sam's new enemy.

"We'll have you painted something less conspicuous when we get to Missouri," he said.

**II. **In Nevada, as Mikyle undergoes tests…

The little boy gazed up into battery-powered lights from giant heat lamps, blinking against them but otherwise making no attempt to shield his eyes. Oranges cords that were having a little help from a black Mazda strewn the Autobot's home as Ratchet got ready to scan.

"You're sure the child will remain unharmed? We've never done this on humans."

"I'm not entirely, Optimus." He pressed a complex sequence into the green strobe keys of his holographic database. "To tell you the absolute truth, I'm not even sure we have all the necessary key components." When the medic looked him in the eyes Optimus understood.

"Go ahead then." The Autobot stood back. His blue optics fell to Mikyle.

The child smiled broadly at him and twitched his fingers inward, waving.

"Stand clear." Ratchet informed Optimus and Bulkhead – the Wreckers had moved back to the barracks to stay with the humans; or rather, annoy the hell out of them for a while.

Mikyle grew unusually quiet and alert as a green sequence of data rolled over his diapered body – nothing but his bottom was covered, his exposed skin looking uneasily fragile. He gave a little moan and pulled away, Optimus tried his best to keep from looking concerned when the database suddenly beamed with out bursting rays of green. Ratchet scanned with frantic eyes as the screen was pinpointing every iota of the boy's body. The muscles in his tiny structure were first exposed, showing embedded pieces of dark green. From there the scan accessed and traced the layer beyond the tendons and veins before going subatomic in what was turning out to be an unexpected rush for the Autobots as it traced ions and cells. Mikyle grew visibly upset, crinkling his face and glancing around with scared cries.

"Are you sure this is safe, Ratchet?" Optimus could no longer stay reserved.

"I'm not sure, Optimus, but he appears unscathed. The boy's just a little-,"

"Stop it!" The Autobot leader turned to him at once.

"Prime," Ratchet gruffly said the name he rarely used, "This is important! I know what your concern is about." Optimus listened. "You're afraid of loss, after Sentinel you…"

"That subject is closed, solider."

Before the two could argue further Mikyle released a frightened wail.

"Optimus!" Bulkhead pleaded. "Stop it." His tan hand came to rest on his leader's arm.

The energon started to resonate brightly as Mikyle's crying grew even louder, causing all three to look up as one. There was an overabundance of it and it was quickly growing too unstable to be contained inside clear glass cubes. Ratchet tried to gained control, but with so many images and chaotic signals popping up at once he couldn't stop their system from going into overdrive – or, more plausibly, going haywire. Optimus took control instead by coming up to the little boy and saying his name calmly. He then repeated it with authority.

Purple emanated so intensely now that cracks formed along the inside of the cubes.

"Optimus," Ratchet panicked.

"_CHILD_!"

All at once, Mikyle was silenced.

The rough edge faded in his voice when Optimus spoke. "Stop that." he said patiently.

His small ward had a runny nose and wet eyes as he peered up at Optimus ruefully.

"Opnus…"

This made him step back in afterthought.

"Enough," the Autobot leader said in a gentler tone. "Bulkhead?" he turned to stocky bot.

"Right on it, sir."

Mikyle lifted his arms up and turned expectantly to his huge friend.

"Bullhead."

"It's okay, little fella. The boss just gets worked up sometimes."

As Eelshock transformed back and Bulkhead was exiting, Optimus was left standing and watching Sam's son being taken back through the entranceway of the now fully darkened energon structure. Through a clear tunnel Mikyle would be taken, handed off by Bulkhead to a stranger, no doubt. Then he would be sanitized again; he would never have a safe life.

A normal life was out of the question.

"I think the time to gather the last two remaining components is upon us, Optimus."

He nodded absently, unconcerned about where they would find more energon.

"I think you are right, old friend." Optimus turned to him, the database was down.

"Prime?"

"I want to thank you, Ratchet. No matter what our future outcome is."

"The future, Optimus, may be one not even we could have foreseen."

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	8. From start to finish

**I.** – Late day, leaving the NEST barracks…

Mikaela watched from the front of the windy white flaps as her child danced around in the breeze, he placed his chubby-cheeked face up and let the wind ruffle his thin bangs back. It made her want to cry, not just from being kept in the dark about what was going on and if she was going to be allowed to leave but about the fact that she had never given her young son what he needed the most; a father. Yet there was no one good enough, not even Sam.

"Miss Banes," The woman from earlier came over and held out a clipboard. "All I'll need from you is a signature and you'll be well on your way back to California." she held it out for the mother to sign, a black pen appeared in her other hand. "At the bottom right side."

"Right…" Mikaela started to cock her head to the left, remembering how vague everyone had been to her when they had provided her and Mikyle two cots to sleep on. People from then were eyeing her son when they thought she wasn't looking. "My son and I together?"

Sandy blonde Australian woman flashed her a tight smile. "All you have to do is sign."

The younger woman nodded with a tight-lipped smile of her own. "No, all I have to do is listen to the seemingly trustworthy woman in front of me and I'm going to get what I've been wanting since yesterday." Mikaela batted the clipboard and pen away from her face.

"I'm under strict orders, here." the tech specialist said between grit teeth.

"Good," Mikaela got in her face. "Because I really don't care."

When she turned to collect her son she saw that two camouflaged men had already taken Mikyle in their arms and were whisking him out of the white-shelled barrack. The woman whipped back around and saw what she expected to see – secrecy. Lies. Near corruption. It was a world she had tried so hard to keep her son away from. Was it too late for them?

…

"Bulkhead, Topspin, Roadbuster, I want you to escort Miss Banes home."

The corpulent bot rubbed his neck. "Right, her _home_, about that…"

"I thought we would be accompanying you." Eelshock spoke up in a young female voice.

The Autobots present turned to her.

"Way to go," Bulkhead approved. Since learning of Arcee's death she rarely said a word.

"I appreciate all that you've done, solider, but you've used so much energy getting others to where they need to be I'd like for you to stay here at the barracks for now… Leadfoot, you will stay behind with Eelshock and Ratchet." he caught the bot as he was meandering past and smiled. "I think these arrangements will bring us closer as a team." Optimus grew more serious as he continued. Two Autobots appeared from behind him as he kept talking.

Sideswipe, a silver robot on wheeled feet, flanked his right while Dino, an Italian bot with a thin red frame took his left. "I'll need speed and timing where I'm going." Optimus said to the rest. "I can't…" he paused from speaking, the others turned to look at one another.

"You can't what, Optimus?" Eelshock insisted.

The Autobot leader was unable to say what he really meant.

"Op-nus!" A familiar voice called up to him.

"We need unfamiliar pairings to become better familiarized," he concluded.

Optimus turned away from his confused comrades and observed the little boy below. He was gazing around at the parked automobiles and battery generators supplying a limited amount of energy to the barracks. When their eyes met, Mikyle seemed totally unphased.

"I apologize for earlier today, small one." Optimus said as he knelt.

The child giggled.

"You wanna go see your daddy?" Bulkhead suddenly appeared.

"Bullhead!"

"Bulkhead…" Optimus warned patiently.

"Heh, sorry boss. It's just that it'd be great to see Bumblebee again. Man, if it were him, me and Jackie…" he stopped when he saw the look his leader was sending him. "What?"

"Bumblebee is not our concern right now."

The way he said this struck Bulkhead oddly.

"Bu-ba-ba!" Mikyle said happily.

"Yeah, kid, Bu-uh… never mined."

"We will take you to your father, it is important that you two meet." Optimus turned to Sideswipe and Dino as they approached. Mikyle grinned and pointed excitedly at them.

"Spark-spark!"

Optimus gave the boy a questionable look. "Child?"

"Au-ta-ba!" Mikyle announced to the newest Autobots. "Spark-spark!"

The task he was trying to perform registered. "Are you trying to command my Autobots?"

Mikyle giggled and smiled, covering his face with his little hands. "Spark-spark…"

Optimus knelt closer. "No one commands my Autobots but myself, child."

The boy's smile disappeared. "Sorry, Op-nus…" he mumbled quietly.

His disappointment made the Autobot leader examine him closer for a moment when all of a sudden a person who had not been cleared to cross the Autobots' line was striding quite angrily over towards them. Without her pink belly shirt and jeans, she wasn't recognizable.

Apparently, having a human sparkling made women buy more sensible attire.

"My SON, in temporary custody of NEST and the government, my ass!" Mikaela raged.

Optimus ushered for the Autobots to stand back and give him space.

He broached the subject imperatively. "Mikaela, the child holds unstable amounts of-,"

"Energon? I know. You don't have to remind me of my tainted pheromones." She shot an approaching Ratchet a look. "All I want is my son back. You aren't taking him Optimus. None of you," Mikaela glared at the entirety of Autobots, "Are allowed to take my son."

The Autobot medic familiar with her tried talking, "If you would just let Optimus finish-,"

"No! You're not taking him!" She shouted, her temper flaring. Mikyle watched on with wide eyes as his mother grew more belligerent. "You can drag me back but not my son."

"You mean _Sam's_ son." Ratchet hit a nerve to cease her tirade. "We have access to all of your medical records, Mikaela. Even if you believed them confidential. We all know what you told him…" She clenched her hands, feeling betrayed. "You forged false records of-,"

Optimus's look silenced him.

"Their union is critical." The Autobot leader turned to her calmly, explaining. "There is no trace of AllSpark left in Sam, we believe because of this that the boy - hmm, man can act as a counteractant to young Mikyle. We're not sure if it will work, but we must try this."

Mikaela just shook her head slowly. "That's bullshit and you know it."

"Hey," Bulkhead came up to her. "That's better then the kid ending up in enemy hands."

"Oh yeah," She looked into Optimus's eyes. "And which one are you?"

There was a connection that generated between the two.

"Mikyle, Mikaela, has small reservoirs of energon in him." The Autobot tried to explain to her one more time. "Uniting him with his father may be a detoxing for him. A sponge. We will not use the energon for ourselves, but other parties in the world. The current virus…"

"You think that doing this will stop it?"

"No, but it may prevent the virus from trying to harvest your son."

Mikaela stepped back at that.

The day was growing darker and people were settling in for the approaching night.

"Autobots." Optimus turned to state.

"Wait!"

Leadfoot turned to his Wreckers. "Someone kill her, please," he whispered.

"That's a great idea." Mikaela interrupted and said to Optimus. "I come with you or I kill Sam's girlfriend." When Dino volunteered to chauffeur the woman, the mission was finally able to commence. She settled into the Ferrari and placed her hands on the wheel, smiling.

"Are you Italian?"

"Si, Italia."

"Nice frame."

"Likewise."

Mikaela giggled, it felt good to be back in the lap of luxury now that she was in the game.

"Autobots," Optimus called out robustly, "_Roll out_!"

Mikyle rode in the cab of the red and blue truck, finally alone with his idol.

But the question remained, was his idol ready to be alone with Mikyle?

**II.** Columbia Missouri, after dusk…

The town was serene and comforting. Sam stood with his hands in his pockets looking down from the road-winding plateau he had to drive down to get there – it had never been his choice where he ended up, even now after he had spent the last month or so talking with Simmons about moving away and urging him to help finance his leaving everything behind for good. Three months of watching the Autobots collect energon, watching them repair NEST, and watching on TV about repairing Chicago, Sam had brainstormed ditching his old life; no goodbyes, no farewells. A final talk had driven Samuel James Witwicky to act, and now there was no way anyone could locate him.

"There's a Decepticon virus in Earth's electricity," He clarified to the '76 Camaro.

Bumblebee locked and unlocked the car in response.

Sam turned to look at him. "I don't know why you won't use your radio, but are you ready to start over here?" The paint-scraped hood revved to life and drove up closer.

A smile crossed the man's face. "First thing in the morning, a new paint job. Tonight I have to meet at the local college for orientation and I have to check into our new place before the crack of dawn and…" Sam trailed. "You know, I wasn't lying before Bee."

Bumblebee swiped at the window shield a few times with his blades.

"You are part of me." He placed his hand on his friend's damaged hood.

Under a half visible moon, the sunburns on Sam's arms appeared against the car.

To be continued...

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	9. Gatekeepers and guardians: Pt 1 of 3

**AN: **Yes, this is a three-part finale. A sequel may be made in the future, thanks everyone!

An epilogue will also be included. :) So that's three chapters left.

**I. – **Within city limits, the University of Columbia…

'I traded a big city for a small city, great. I told Simmons no more cities.' Sam thought as he dipped into a can of paint beside his old High School cargo pants – it had been one of three things he had kept since turning eighteen and leaving home four years earlier. Now here he was making eleven dollars an hour at a high-ranking college as a nighttime janitor.

Instead of applying paint to the shabby job Sam had done to his poor car, the man was on a trial run for maintaining this low pay position. If he did a decent job, the head custodian had briefly mentioned as he left for the night, Sam would be allowed to stay in a low rent apartment complex right next to the campus and possibly able to partake in other events.

College life wasn't as appealing now that he was twenty-one, Sam had never gotten into any fraternities, his degree was completely worthless, but the worst, most absolute awful part of being back on a college campus was being reminded of the pair of events that had conspired in only two years: his best friend growing distant from him and Mikaela Banes.

Sam took comfort in the fact that Bumblebee was here in town with him, even after hell had descended upon their lives. The man had told his car to drive to their apartment as he worked from eight to three, activate it and then generally do whatever he wanted. It was selfish to keep Bumblebee like this, away from the other Autobots, his friends and most importantly, his own kind. Sam was beginning to wonder if maybe the ruse he'd failed to pull was just a ploy to get Bumblebee to follow him. Maybe the elaborateness was just a cry for attention and Sam was just too pathetic to let his friend live his own life after all.

"God, I'm desperate." He said as he stood up from painting the white walls brown.

The idea of admitting his faults to Bumblebee in the morning rolled around in his head as something down the hall caught his eye. Sam looked around to see if his future employer or anyone else was around. The man was alone. This building was empty at night and no one had the key to any room; except, of course, for the janitors. Smiling a little, Sam let his curiosity win out and strolled down the finished hallway. Five hours was a long time, Bumblebee wouldn't be back until then and Sam's back was aching from all the bending.

Above a heavy wooden door were the words: **101.9 The Tiger **on a placard. So this was where the college radio station was, Sam noted. It was odd that the Decepticon virus, as he briefly recalled, couldn't access radio waves. The man began to wonder if he could do something, maybe a strong blast of _Smells Like Teen Spirit _would disable the sound virus.

Sam grew leery at the thought of meddling around with a Decepticon, especially one that could not be fought physically. When he had left Sam had promised himself he would have nothing more to do with alien robots. It would be just him and Carly, moving away from a world that Sam believed he wanted nothing to do with. He walked on to the next hallway so he could do his job and keep out of trouble. The Autobots would find a way to stop the virus. Human technology would come back online and the world would be saved, without Sam. He picked up his brush and watched as the brown drops fell one-by-one into the can.

"I…" Sam started to lift the brush up before pausing. "I can't." he dropped the handle and his head at the same time. Fumbling for his keys, Sam decided then that he couldn't have a normal life. It was foolish to believe he wasn't important to the Autobots, to his friends…:

But _most_ importantly, Sam smiled as he found the right key, they were his family.

**II. **– Behind Optimus, somewhere in Utah…

Mikaela glared out at the night sky.

"You're not taking me all the way to Missouri, are you?" she guessed.

The Ferrari, driving smoothly and nearly soundless, didn't respond.

"It's all right," the woman continued, "I didn't think Optimus would let me anyhow."

"I'm sorry." Dino said, his accent thick but strangely empathetic. "It's not your fault. The battle in Chicago with Sentinel has more or less warped our leader's mind and virtues. He is in a state of constant second guessing, his values, morals and even patience are limited."

"I know what you mean. When I think of what I did to Sam…" Mikaela's voice caught.

"Would you like the chance to speak with him?"

The woman shot the black vinyl with leopard trim a hard look. "No." she said curtly.

"Our orders are to drop you off at the next bus station." The Autobot mentioned.

"I don't want to be tricked," Mikaela crossed her arms and looked away.

"And _we _don't want to lose any more of our friends."

"What?" She looked back.

"The time is nearing… Bumblebee has told very few of us. It is nearing the time of a very important broadcast he will be making, against the Decepticon virus." Mikaela leaned in.

"Sam might be with him." She whispered.

"Sam _is _with him." Dino corrected.

The woman swallowed hard. "Then let me speak with him."

It was now time to get in touch with Sam, Mikaela realized, after nearly two years apart.

…

Inside the Peterbilt truck, being flanked off-road as they took the long way by Dino and Sideswipe, Mikyle road with two seat belts harnessed around his small body. The excited boy bounced up and down as Optimus tried his best not to pay too much attention to his young charge. But somehow, between declares of "Am trucker!", it was rather difficult.

"Child," The Autobot leader said huskily but carefully, "Could you please stop that."

Mikyle giggled before spotting the window's handle bar and grasping for it.

The plastic tipped metal turned up and out of the boy's reach.

He made a face as he wiggled out of his harness.

"Be seated." Optimus told him.

Mikyle ignored the Autobot and clasped the handle in his hands, but grew immediately frustrated when he discovered he couldn't pry it down. The crease in the window blew cool air into the cab and the little boy pressed his face up, smiling. Curiously, Optimus rolled the window down the rest of the way and relaxed as Mikyle leaned back with a gentle noise of contentment. But just as he seemed cooled off and calmed, the boy was standing up on the seat again and trying to take hold of the wheel. The necessity to tell him not to do this was being suppressed as Mikyle whined to take hold of the big circle.

Something about what the child was doing made Optimus immune to disciplining him.

Instead, he allowed the cab-length seat to move forward so that the child could grasp it. Mikyle curled his upper lip back and clutched onto the wheel. Optimus made sure it was secure before allowing the boy to pull himself to his feet and stand grasping the circle. A sense of wonder entered his dark eyes – so much like Sam's wide, expressive ones – and he climbed up onto the wheel. Mikyle clung on and peered up to see the night-shed road that loomed ahead. His little utterances grew softer as he pressed his mouth to the plastic.

"Trucker…" He cooed.

"All right, child." Optimus said, subdued. "It's time to sit down now."

When the wheel started to come out of the frame, Mikyle didn't resist. He sleepily moved from his place and curled up against the driver's seat without his seat belt on. Optimus did not say a word as he watched Sam and Mikaela's son tuck his little hand under her cheek. He did not voice the boy a good night or volunteer to tell him a bedtime story. Instead the Autobot, between glimpsing at the road and watching Mikyle, felt something strange. His comrades would always drive outside and behind him, sometimes they were near his large wheels, their unspoken loyalties unquestioned but often tested. Lately, Optimus had very few who rode behind him and rarely was anyone beside him. Sentinel had always been in front, of course, in the back of Optimus's mind even when present missions required his attention to stay on task. Only one other time had someone been _inside _of the Autobot.

Now, there was only one living being in the world who wanted anything to do with him.

It was sad, it was lonely, to think that no one else trusted him anymore.

"Op-nus," Mikyle muttered.

"You're safe, child." He promised his charge. "You're safe…"

**III. – **In the radio station, back in Missouri…

The room was dimly lit by the fluorescent bulbs streaming in through the wooden door's crease. Sam made his way carefully through the room and saw what looked like a typical recording studio from on television. Dismissing his teenage dreams of being something of a next generation Vanilla Ice, Sam came to take a seat on a swivel chair before the system in front of him. A boom mike was on a silver stick with speakers and switches that would light up tiny colored squares when the station was live, an unlit On-Air sign was even over the recording studio. Sam nudged the mike back and forth, contemplating disc jockeying.

"Maybe it could be a day job," he said to himself.

A crumbling sound from the outer walls shocked Sam. Pipes whistled and steam blew out from the jagged lines starting to form and run down the silver walls of the radio station. It was all Sam could do not to faint as half of the room disappeared and a massive being with blue eyes loomed over him under the night sky. It was the startling reminder from only one night earlier that made Sam stand up and gawk at the destroyed surroundings of the room.

"Bumblebee," He mouthed his friend's name in bemusement, "What have you done?"

His life, his new, lonely, sad life, was gone. They would blame him, naturally.

"God." Sam said, devastated, "God DAMMIT!"

"Sam," Bumblebee spoke softly.

"Bee, what have you done? I know I've been a terrible friend to you, I know I've been a selfish, undeserving person for the last two years. But why, _why _would you do something like this to someone else's property? I'll be locked away, Bee. They'll jail me for all time."

Bumblebee didn't bother to assess the damage as he observed the big panel of switches.

"Do you know what I've been through?.!"

The Autobot stepped into the remains of the radio station and leaned down to finger Sam on the chin. His eyes and voice were gentle but firm as he spoke; the only other time he'd ever done this was after Optimus had died. When Bumblebee said more then a few words than Sam knew it was for good reason. So the man let him speak and didn't interrupt him:

"Samuel, do you know what _I've _gone through? Do you know what all Autobots have gone through as a race and as comrades. Everything you have endured, Sam, I've been right there with you. There is nothing, my dear friend, that you have gone through alone. I am your guardian, whether you want me to be or not. But you are my friend too and I will protect you forever if it were possible. Please do not argue. The time for me to use my radio is now. I will stop the Decepticon virus, as I always planned to.

It is the start of the Unicron and you must be silent, Sam, it may try to kill you too and I can't risk that my friend. Stay silent. Know that I cherish you and care for you, but do not put yourself in a position to be destroyed. I can't protect you with my radio on, Sam." Pause. "You are part of me, young fella, please know that I love you."

With everything said and nothing for Sam to say, Bumblebee turned on the radio.

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	10. Gatekeepers and guardians: Pt 2 of 3

**I. –** Kansas, one state from Sam and Bumblebee…

A bump jostled Mikaela awake. She looked up from the smooth shadow of the dashboard to see that Optimus had taken a different route and now they were headed for a truck stop in some spigot of town surrounded by farmland, the woman questioned the Autobot why.

"Rest stop," he said.

"When does Bumblebee come on?" She asked solemnly.

"A few minutes, but we can't tell Optimus. His spark can't take much more. Just let him get supplies for the child and we'll be good to go. Do you need anything, young lady?"

Mikaela leered at him and then watched the Peterbilt roll into the parking lot. Sideswipe was headed off in the other direction, as if expecting Dino to follow: he didn't. Mikaela slowly started getting suspicious, and then catching on. This was where Optimus and his "comrades" had planned to make off with Mikyle while ditching Mikaela somewhere in another town or something. It was a little sad, to think that the Autobots were battling trust issues. But then, Mikaela was growing pissed at Optimus; Dino followed the bot.

Optimus's right side view mirror switched back and examined the Autobot's disloyalty.

"Wait don't." the woman suddenly said. She felt horrible for doing this.

Why? Mikaela wasn't sure why. Maybe she cared for the alien robots after all.

"It's too late," Dino spoke, but deftly swerved out of the way before he was spotted.

"No, it's not." Mikaela felt torn as she reached for the door and amazingly found that Dino was allowing her out. "We can't betray Optimus like this. What's wrong? What happened in Chicago that would make you afraid of him? He's a kind guy. My God, I know he's not perfect but he's _Optimus Prime. _I trust him with my child's life Dino."

"He killed an Autobot." The car said.

Mikaela was removed from the superficial attention she and the Ferrari attracted.

…

The image of a trucker flickered to life beside a barely rousing Mikyle.

"Stay here," he ordered as the truck door flung open of it's own accord and a brown-haired, brown-bearded man in blue overalls climbed out into the night. His image was perfect, with only the occasional ripple. He didn't look back as Mikyle rose to his feet.

"Opnus," the boy said in recognition. He blinked once and smiled. "Spark-spark."

"Excuse me, sir."

An edgy-looking young man was gripping the store's counter. "Uh, yeah?"

"I require provisions for a seventeen-month-old child." The image commanded.

"Uh… you mean like diapers?"

"Sustenance. Food. Water, if you will."

"In the back…" The man pointed, shaking.

"Are you all right?" Image Optimus asked as he held out his hand and projected a soft red and white bag that said Pampers – diapers read underneath it – and then did this as well with a bag of trail mix and a small packet of bottled water. "You seem rather dazed son."

"Well, truthfully, I've been having a rough last day or so. You see, my friend agreed to let me take his place here, because, well, there's a police investigation. The robot virus thing is really getting out of hand and-and my boss panicked when he found out that one of the things destroyed his shop. So, so now I'm going to really struggle to get by and, God…"

"You sound like myself." Optimus made no mention of the items tractor beaming over his imaged hands, floating in thin air before the stunned man. "Uncertain. Troubled. I do not wish you anymore harm, nor do I wish to break human law. Please allow me to leave in-,"

"A hurry." Mikaela suddenly burst through the door, moved through the projected image and caused it and the tractor beam to fluctuate. She picked up the dropped items, pulled out a wad of fives and plopped three down on the counter. "No need to call the police."

The man nodded slowly, his eyes wide.

"They're not all bad, you know." She swiped the trail mix for a chocolate bar. "Give the alien robots a chance, they may surprise you." With that, Mikaela strode away from him.

Optimus was gone, however, when she returned to the truck stop.

Dino was alone, abandoned, sitting dejectedly with a crowd of admirers around him.

"It's not over yet," Mikaela muttered to herself and hurried back to the Ferrari.

**II.**

The announcement, Columbia Missouri…

"Bee? Bee!" Sam frantically shook the arm of his despondent friend.

Panels opened from paint-scraped parts on his body and cables leaked out to combine and hack into the radio channel's capabilities. The On-Air sign clicked to life and the hum of the generators keeping the electricity going went silent in the background. Sam watched with mounting anxiety as all the lights on the system turned on and a familiar voice said,

"Sam." It was Mikaela. After two years, it was really her. The man moved the mike up.

"Mikaela?" His voice was small.

"There's something I have to tell you." She said with partial emotion, partial reasoning.

"I'm here." He responded.

"Sam, I lied." The man sat completely still as recognition failed to penetrate his brain at her words. "I never… got an abortion. It was a lie, an absolute lie to break up with you and give my child a normal life. Sam," Mikaela sounded stung, something that had never happened before. "Sam, you have a child." she said abruptly. This made him sit up, erect.

He opened his mouth but his vocal ability still eluded him.

…

The old radio dial in the Peterbilt clicked on and through a CB radio Mikaela spoke the words Optimus had waited for. "Sam, you have a child." Observing Mikyle, he saw that there was no spark in his eyes at Sam's name. There was no emotion on his round face.

"Mikyle… this is your father. I'm taking you to him. He can help us."

"Mama," He said, more alert now.

"Yes. And your father, Sam."

"Dada…"

"_Yes_." Optimus confirmed, he was thoroughly pleased with this outcome.

The Autobot leader knew Bumblebee was doing this. He knew he had gone against him.

Yet, in this moment, the Autobot was just so happy that the family could be united.

"Opnus," Mikyle turned to look at the wheel that kept the vehicle at a constant speed and direction. "Dada." There was silence on both sides. Optimus realized Sam could hear him.

"Sam! You must interact with the boy. It's important, if Viralvox is presented a chance he will harness Mikyle for energon. This child… you don't understand. We scanned him back at our home, he will possibly be safe with you, cleansed of the energon that merged inside his small body during our battle against the Fallen. We need you, Sam. Call to your boy."

"Sam, he's right." Mikaela's breathy voice came back on. "Mikyle's like some kind of new AllSpark shit, it's like the cubes been reborn in the form of our son. Sam, please, help us."

"Sam…" Mikyle said through the speakers.

It reverberated.

…

"Sa-a-am." The child's voice rang like a ghost in Sam's ears.

He reclined back in his chair next to a stationary Bumblebee.

"Son," the word came out of his mouth. "Bee's warning…" Instant realization hit Sam.

Grabbing for the mike, Sam spat out his warning without thinking. "Listen to me, I know you can hear me! All of you, the world. My name's…well, it's not important. I'll tell you what _is _important. Technology is going to come back on, the Decepticon virus got what he wanted, he got a fix on my and my young son's location. Do not turn on any of your

electronics. Do you hear me! You cannot, repeat, _not _do this. Your life is in danger, my son's life is in danger…" Sam suddenly cut off, choked off. "My son's life is in danger."

The world resumed their old ways, even the people who had their radios on. Some did follow Sam's pleas and rants, most did not. Bumblebee had accessed the world's global radio network and counter hacked Viralvox. He had sacrificed himself and his voice to deliver a final attack in the very end. The worst part was, Sam now knew that this was what his friend had planned. This plan was a suicide mission and he would not be back.

With trembling arms and legs, the man left his lifeless friend behind.

**III.**

The borderline of Missouri…

Optimus drove toward the rising sun in the eastern horizon. It came up in a haze of soft crimson, engulfing the arid-turned parts of Kansas into a red-skied desert. Mikyle stirred slowly and seemed perfectly at home with the lack of vegetation. They would hit green foliage when they arrived in the first town of Missouri. A static loomed on the air, causing the Autobot leader to grow wary. Even the child seemed to pick up on the subtle friction.

"Opnus?" He questioned.

The Peterbilt rolled to a stop and Optimus transformed back.

"Hmm…" His blue eyes roamed the growth-free terrain.

Shadowy figures appeared in the distance.

Optimus squinted his optics and saw the impossible – Decepticons. It was what he had feared when human technology was reactivated. The strange thing was, these were not living cons, their feet dragged and their arms wove absently around their bodies. Now Bumblebee was gone and his efforts had been for naught, to his and Mikyle's far left a total number of five zombieifed Decepticons were headed their way. This was the next wave of attack the last living Decepticon had planned. He looked down at Sam's child.

Mikyle looked up at him.

"I'm afraid you must be hidden." The Autobot said.

If Mikyle was fused with Optimus, just as the AllSpark had been with Megatron, then Viralvox would have all the power he needed to bring on his next plan; whatever it be.

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	11. Gatekeepers and guardians: Pt 3 of 3

**I. – **in Bumblebee's mind…

Flashes of darkness entered the Autobot's subconscious. Like the concave of a telescope, the stars and moons that existed around Cybertron floated in and out in front of the bot's eyes. This was a place that Sam was not at. A heaviness fell over his suspended body as a new part of his former planet was shown, it was torn and fractured; his first thoughts were that this was because of the war. Then the Autobot remembered – Sentinel and the pillars.

"Bumblebee," A familiar voice spoke.

He turned his yellow head to see an outline of smoke gray.

"Ironhide?" Somehow his voice was perfect here.

"Cybertron still exists," Arcee's in charge voice said, her blue outline appeared to his left.

"Arcee." Bumblebee became more alert and excited.

"At least in part, outside in the universe." She finished.

He had found his friends!

"Do not worry for us." Que appeared at the top right of the shadow verse.

"We're fine, home dawg." Jazz was next to appear opposite Ironhide.

"You must return." Ironhide said to the Autobot. "The world is still in need of you. This isn't your time, as it was ours. You have people depending on you, Optimus, Ratchet…"

"No," He reached out, sounding empty and lost, "I can't leave you."

"Bumblebee, think of Sam." Que encouraged. Their faces seemed to slowly grow closer.

"Think of Mikaela." Ironhide said. "Don't you want to teach that two-timing hussy-,"

"Think of the other Autobots out there," Arcee cut him off.

"Don't blame yourself, Bee." Jazz's image was the most detailed now. "What happened to us is that we're residual energy now, spirit sparks. We can help you go back, if you want."

"No."

"Bumblebee, please." Ironhide was immediately at his side, his hand rested on his friend.

"Optimus will find it in his spark to forgive you." Que also converged. "You know that."

"I must face him." Bumblebee started to agree.

"And besides," Jazz was within arm's length as were Ironhide and Que.

"Who else is going to keep track of Bulkhead." Arcee winked at Bumblebee.

"Bulkhead?" His optics opened as wide as they could.

"Give the others our regards." Que said.

"Goodbye, old friend." Ironhide faded away.

"Tell everyone hey." Jazz did as well.

Bumblebee panicked, looking around frantically.

"Friends!" He tried to grab at them. They were leaving much too quickly.

"Be strong, Bumblebee." Arcee said sympathetically. "You will always be a part of us."

His world turned from a star-scoped globe of his devastated home to a mass of spaceships.

"Quintessons," He spoke softly.

Bumblebee awoke to an empty room; Sam was gone.

**II. – **Missouri…

Optimus watched an older couple vacate their white-boarded home quickly and made his way over to the side of the road. Mikyle clung onto his hand with an anticipant look; he truly seemed to understand that something alarming was upon them. The Autobot, even with top-notch technology and a string of risks and sacrifices, was too late. Bumblebee had engaged Viralvox through the radio as only he could and a new takeover was here.

"Go inside," He instructed the little boy, opening the swinging door to let him in.

"Opnus?"

"Don't move."

"No." Mikyle caught his retreating fingers. "Opnus."

The Autobot looked his charge over a final time before pulling away.

"Stay here, child. I can't guarantee I'll win, but I will fight to preserve your life."

Mikyle stood in the doorway in his little Buzz Lightyear sandals and Cars T-shirt.

"Opnus…" He murmured. "Dada."

Pushing the door back more, the child stumbled out across the wooden porch and took a sight of five disfigured Decepticons dragging themselves across the arid outskirts of what was once farmland. He saw that his hero was outnumbered and decided to aid in the fight.

…

The ground rumbled underneath Optimus while the dark energon glowing inside the dead Decepticons' eyes – the names of which didn't click right away – seemed to brighten with a heavier concentration of black power as the earth ripped from underneath them. The two that were not destroyed went for Optimus but were dealt with two severe punches to their necks, both of which had been beheaded by Optimus once. An enormous machine that had been killed off three months earlier rose from the quaking earth in a high, twisting poise to strike. Optimus turned the other way and jogged back as the ominous presence descended.

"Shockwave," Optimus breathed.

Without warning, the zombie struck the Autobot straight in the chest – as if it expected an object to be there. Optimus was flipped over in an agonizing roll before he caught himself on the second air twist and shot Shockwave square in the jaw. The hydra of hardware fell back to reposition itself, giving Optimus enough time to fan out and take on the offensive.

"Autobots, a-," He looked over his broad shoulders. There was no one.

Even the living dead had back up.

Shockwave caught him in his moment of distraction and the circuited serpent wasted no time in trying to squeeze the Autobot leader in mid-air. Optimus raised his cannoned arm and bagged it repeatedly against Shockwave, but could not get a clear shot of him. As the Decepticon rose writhing in the air, the sight of an approaching dot was cause for alarm.

"Child!" Optimus hollered down. His sides started to crush together with brutal force.

"Opnus!" The boy's cry was faint at the height the Autobot was suspended.

Thinking fast, before he was totally crunched between the tremendous zombie, Optimus brandished his sword and struck it into the midsection holding him in place. Shockwave didn't scream out in pain, instead he constricted Optimus all the more before the robotic leader was able to use the last of his exertion to jab his sword all the way in. He jerked it up and managed to pull it out before it was severed. Ratchet had too much work already.

This was the last thought Optimus had before he plummeted back to earth.

…

Leaping through a V space between the rust gray Decepticon, Mikyle scampered out in a toddler's version of a sprint toward the site where Optimus had crashed. Overhead the big robot was watching the moving child intently, but not yet acting as Viralvox scanned what he knew would be a goldmine of energon in the boy, courtesy of two unknowing humans.

It was so predictable that no one had heeded Samuel Whitwicky's radio aired warning.

Mikyle arrived at a medium-sized crater. His little mom-bought sandals led him to where his real hero lay groaning in the ground. Scrapes and scratches ran over the old war scars that covered his body, sandy steam rose around the once great Autobot as if this were it.

"Opnus." The little boy bent down and discovered the real damage done.

"Child…" Optimus vaguely observed Shockwave rising even higher for surveillance.

"_Opnus_!" Mikyle screamed.

"The radio." He indicated his CB cord running the length from his totaled body to the still intact white house. "Go get it for me," his fingers shook, "Please, boy, run. Ask for help."

Optimus attempted to reach out and grasp Mikyle to protect him but he was too weak.

His spirit, it seemed, was weakened as well.

"Okay, Opnus." Mikyle told him quietly and turned to hustle toward the truck's radio.

Viralvox – through the eyes of Shockwave – looked with indecision between the two.

"Destroy Optimus Prime… destroy the Autobots. Destroy the boy… destroy the energon. But by destroying the Autobot leader, I will no longer have an active chamber for the boy. Decisions…" He chose then to just take the child and force him into Optimus, ending him.

But also, the human AllSpark would be his.

…

Mikyle looked up as the Decepticon plunged down for him.

His tiny hands curled as did his upper lip. "_Boom_!" he cried, punching upwards.

Viralvox pulled away in surprise.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! _Boom_!" Mikyle yelled out bravely as he kept air punching.

The gigantic Decepticon growled at the annoying outburst when a series of five shots rang out. Optimus had found the energy to blast Viralvox away from the little boy. Mikyle took this opportunity to do as his hero had requested and dash for the radio, he didn't stop even as the one-sided melee Optimus forced upon his foe continued over him, airborne. With as much strength and speed as he could muster, Mikyle stumbled and fell back the other way with the radio in his arms and the speaker dragging behind him as well. The cord, though, wasn't helping his ungraceful gait. Mikyle grinned excitedly as he came upon the Autobot.

"Opnus!" He cried successfully.

In one, thundering move, an enormous gray limb pounded Optimus into the ground.

"AH!"

Viralvox pulled back.

Mikyle's tiny jaw dropped as Optimus breathed out in shallow gasps.

His brown eyes widened in reality-shattering realization as the Decepticon inside the dead Shockwave's body rose up to look down at him. The child turned to see Optimus's radio speaker lying at his feet. Frightfully, Mikyle dove to clasp it and heard the dead air signal that he knew meant Optimus was still alive; but barely. Mikyle then pressed his tiny nose to the speaker and cried for his father. Even as he didn't know it for a fact, he called out:

"Sam! Sam!" His cries when unanswered. "_Sam_!"

There was nothing. Viralvox went in for the kill.

"SAAAAAAAAM!"

Time froze, Mikyle's wailing seemed to echo off the sound waves themselves.

"Mikyle." A different voice then he had anticipated spoke over the radio. "I'm here."

"Sam?" The boy whimpered.

"Hold up the radio," it commanded.

Mikyle did as he was told and an explosion of white noise channeled through the air. The high pitched power was like cutting silver, screeching into the gnash that Optimus had left open to infection – inadvertently though. The frequencies of the white noise varied, having an uncomfortable affect on Mikyle; but the boy stood tall and held the speaker high for his audio enemy to hear. On the other end, Bumblebee played different sounds at levels which began to paralyze Viralvox. The Decepticon had taken on a form that was vulnerable, if he had only stayed in his original form. The audio synthesizer Bumblebee was using made one final assault – a coarse blast of _Smells Like Teen Spirit _set to a terrible, hap-hazard techno accompaniment – and thus caused the zombieifed Shockwave to collapse with a rumble.

Optimus raised his cannon and shot at the Decepticon's neck, severing his head off.

"BOOM!" A little voice cried out.

He turned to look at Mikyle's outstretched arms. "Child?"

The little boy grinned and covered his mouth, giggling mischievously.

Optimus reverted his arm and let it fall to the ground, useless.

Mikyle abandoned the CB radio completely and hurried over to be with his hero.

"Opnus," he said in alarm, coming to stop at the crater again.

The Autobot moaned in pain before turning his head and looking up at his young charge.

"Boy, you stay with me. Why?"

"Opnus…"

"I have done a heinous thing child, a very wrong thing indeed. I killed one of my own. I am not the hero you idealize, the father-figure you adore. I am a traitor of my own virtue. Do you think I will be forgiven, child? Do you think the next life will have mercy for me?"

Two stomps came from behind them. "Why, Optimus, do you always seek to place blame on yourself? Blame you do not deserve in the least. It's no one's fault what Sentinel did."

"I guess I'll never learn, Ratchet. My regards go to you and your fellow Autobots."

"Prime…"

"Regards, my friend. Not grievances."

"I shall, old friend. Tell the ones we have lost I miss them dearly."

"Yes… I will."

Optimus's head fell to one side, his eyes closed.

"OPNUS!" Mikyle screamed. He went blindly into the crater. "Opnus…" his feet slipped.

"I got you." Ratchet caught the falling boy.

"No, no!" Through streams of warm tears Mikyle fought to reach his hero. "Opnus…"

The Autobot medic was affected by the child's plight.

"You may be with him," He started to set Mikyle down beside his fallen leader and friend when a blue orb, scribed in hieroglyphics only the most knowledgeable of Autobots could read, formed in front of him. "I don't believe it," Ratchet read it. "Inscriptions for the next Prime." his blue eyes fell to Mikyle in amazement. "Boy, Optimus chose… Oh my Spark."

"Opnus," the child whined, still heartbroken.

"He must have done so because he knew his demise was imminent."

Mikyle reached for the winged piece of azure – the Matrix of Leadership – and Ratchet leveled him with it. There was something unusual about the way the toddler let it hover above his hands, the way he concentrated made the Autobot turn him. "Child?" he said.

The boy didn't pay the Autobot any mind.

Behind Ratchet, Bulkhead, Sideswipe and Eelshock came to gather around them.

They weren't mournful, just silent and respectful.

That was, until Bulkhead discovered Optimus.

"No, Boss-," he reached out.

His friends held him back.

"Hush Bulkhead." Ratchet reprimanded him. "Child, speak. What is it you wish to do?"

"Heal."

"Come again?"

Mikyle turned to look over his little shoulder. "Heal, Opnus." He murmured in earnest.

Calm, sad acceptance fell over Ratchet's ancient face. "If that is what you want."

The Autobot set the child down, Mikyle walked over with the Matrix. It hovered just above his hands before he turned, smiled at Ratchet, and pressed the winged shard into the caved-in side of Optimus Prime. He lovingly pressed his cheek against it as a warm light melded them and a sickly sallow color came to Mikyle's face. Ratchet didn't think twice about pulling the boy away as Optimus gasped. Sideswipe and the medic went to work with assisting him as Eelshock took Mikyle into her thorn-fingered hands. Sorrow filled Bulkhead's eyes as he nudged the child on the arm and shook his head, muttering no.

Eelshock slowly extended the points of her fingers out and electricity sparked on them.

"Eelshock, what are you doing?" Ratchet looked their way.

"The boy has given his life to protect us," She said to him. "It's time to give back."

She used the last of her powers to revive Mikyle.

His eyebrows twitched and he moaned – much to Bulkhead's happiness – before his little hands reached up to touch his heart. Eelshock watched with pleasure as Mikyle rubbed at his eyes and broke into an ear-to-ear grin at the sight of Optimus being assisted to his feet.

"Maybe engaging others in battle by yourself should be against the rules."

Eelshock slugged Bulkhead in the arm, relieved to see her friend using quips again.

The Autobot leader turned to him. "You've done well, solider, as you all have."

"Me?" Mikyle piped up.

"Yes, son."

What they all gradually observed was the Autobot emblem melded into the boy's hands.

"Hmm…" Ratchet spoke scientifically. "It only forms when he holds them both together."

Optimus laughed, surprising them all. "Indeed it does, my friend, indeed it does."

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	12. To renounce, to reunite

_The time for separate thinking is over, only unity will aid us. We've lost many. But together we can find a way. – _Optimus Prime, Chapter Four.

**I. **An open field in Columbia Missouri…

A college bus with a tiger mascot on the side of it rolled up to an unoccupied spot in the countryside. Samuel J. Whitwicky, with nothing but a wallet of money in his pocket and paint spattered clothes on his back, tramped down five dirty steps. He nodded to the bus driver in thanks and headed toward the flat surface of unkept grass. The metal groan of the bus leaving and the puff of exhaust from wherever the tailpipes were didn't phase or worry Sam. He would have a ride. Optimus had been calm but forthcoming over the line.

In the shadows of late morning, the man made out a large square shape under some trees. This reminded him of the time he and the Autobot had met in the graveyard at his college, when Optimus had told Sam how much he was needed. Now, he knew it went both ways.

"Optimus," The expectant calmness in Sam's tone surprised him slightly. It was a man's deep voice that spoke, clear and polite. There was no squeak of nasal puberty, tremor of fear or even a disruption of hormones. It was just Sam, just two days shy of reaching the age of twenty-two. Optimus Prime rolled out toward him, staying in truck mode. "Hey."

The Autobot assumed his normal form in a rotation of red, blue and silver.

"Hey." He said back.

Sam blinked at his casualness.

"You sound different."

Optimus gave him a peaceful smile. There was a lightness to the robot, a brightening that Sam was wary of. In three laborious months, the Autobot had gone from a chivalrous but dedicated leader to a morbidly silent figure. While his comrades had been concerned, Sam had been plotting his escape. Now the man let his own brooding subside, but suspiciously.

"I'm not gonna lie," He rubbed at his neck, becoming rueful. "I thought you'd be mad."

"I've had quite a few difficult months Sam, just as you have. I'm sorry for my behavior."

"Why do you seem so different?" His brown eyes scrutinized him. "Optimus, don't get me wrong. I know what happened. It's just that you became so… dark and depressed. Why is it all of a sudden you're okay, happy even? I don't understand, you became so miserable."

It was then that Sam noticed someone behind the Autobot's foot. Optimus reached his big fingers out for them and much tinnier ones clutched at their tips. He didn't notice as Carly arrived in a camouflage jeep with Lennox. She climbed out of it and joined her not-yet-ex.

"Mikyle…" Optimus said as he was joined against the timbers with Ratchet taking his left side and Sideswipe his right. "This is Sam," Bulkhead and Eelshock took residency behind Sam and Carly as well. "Sam," The Autobot leader said; he rose, continuing on. "Mikyle."

Mikaela arrived shortly after inside Dino.

Sam kneeled down and looked at the little boy slowly being guided forward by Optimus.

"Hi there," he spoke in a soft voice, his eyes were open and intent.

The child was wary, just as he had been, but in an innocent, wondering sort of way.

"Sam?" Mikyle asked.

"Yeah, it's me. And this, this is Carly." He gestured to the white silk bloused woman.

"Lady."

"Yeah…" Sam held his arms out. No one said a word. "Come here."

The child then looked up at Optimus.

"Go." He encouraged.

Mikyle turned back to Sam. "Bum-bull-bee?" he struggled to enunciate.

The man was silent for a moment, saddened. "Bumblebee's not here," he mumbled.

"Bumbullbee," the toddler insisted. "Sam."

"Bumblebee and Sam." He smiled, tears came to his eyes and Carly touched his arm.

"Sam." She comforted.

"That's the way it's suppose to be." A sob escaped his mouth.

"Sam?" Mikyle was moved by the tearful man.

"It's _me_." Sam insisted to the boy this time. "Sam." his voice cracked.

In a shy gesture, his young acquaintance hid behind his hands.

His father grinned with tears rolling down his cheeks and hid behind his hands as well.

A spark of recognition lit Mikyle's face and he broke out into a smile. "SAM!" he cried.

The man gladly took him into his arms. "Hi buddy," He leveled his son and rose. "Hi…"

"Hi Mikyle." Carly touched his chubby arm. "I'm Carly."

"Carl." He cooed.

She laughed and wiped back tears of her own. "Oh, Sam. He looks just like you."

Father and son turned to each other.

"Sam," Mikyle touched the man's wet olive cheek.

"Mikyle," He said softly, touching the boy's cheek in return. "I'm your daddy."

"Bumblebee!" Carly shouted and laughed. Tears ran out of her eyes anew.

Sam whirled around and gasped, smiling, then screamed. "BEE!"

"Sam, Carly," He bustled towards them, his arms were spread wide and inviting.

As the rust gray and brown-red patched Autobot happily caught them by their waists and hoisted them into the air, Mikyle in Sam's arms, Mikaela walked along the side with Dino behind her – the two having grown close in a short amount of time – and took a place by Ratchet, Sideswipe and Optimus. Bulkhead, Eelshock, Bumblebee and the instantly tight knit family continued to brew with excitement. Ratchet looked down at a stony Mikaela.

"I suppose apologies are in order."

"My son's happy," she said. "That's all that matters."

"I suppose you count what we did as treason, Optimus." Dino included his new friend.

Bumblebee looked up in fear at his leader and trudged over to meet his fate as well.

Sam watched on acutely. Slowly, the others did too.

"Mama!"

Mikyle took no part in noticing the blame game and pulled his father and Carly toward his mother. She wrapped her arms around him and stood up, solemn. It was only then that he saw what everyone else already dreaded. Every one of them had played an important part in stopping the last Decepticon in the world. They were all connected, even if no blood or energon coursed through their veins. Except, of course, for Mikyle. Each person had laid their lives down, they had been willing to sacrifice everything for each other. Through all the mishap and mayhem, they had fought to save a little boy who in the end had brought them all closer. The last three days had bonded them more then even five years had. But how did any of it matter? Confidence boosts, tearful reunions and streaks of courage, no matter how spectacular, meant nothing if you went against those in charge. Namely… it was Optimus. They were afraid of him. In the past they had relied, looked to and nearly borderline worshiped his words and wisdom. But one event had changed their views as though none of their reverence for him had ever been. Now he had to address them all:

He ripped his Autobot emblem from his chest.

No one spoke, all were stunned but one… Ratchet.

Mikyle took the emblem given to him, his hands bore the same Autobot sign.

"All I wanted was for unity and safety for you all, for the world."

He stood and scanned every one of their faces.

By this time NEST and the virus detection team had arrived.

"You will always be my friends," Optimus said. "But I have failed you as a leader."

"Optimus…" Sam barely got out.

The Autobot turned and walked away.

Overhead in the nearly noon sky black dots began to form.

"The next stage of the Unicron." Ratchet remarked.

"We must get everyone to cover." Bumblebee said next.

Mikaela walked up to them, looked into Sam's eyes and concluded. "They want Mikyle."

The Autobots took the young human Prime to hide him until his time would come.

…

Lately I have found myself at an impasse. It is in my best judgement to say I have reached the crossroads of life. I'm quickly learning there are many people who have not chosen the same path as I, many of which choose a path I disagree with entirely, but as time moves on they just become another statistic, just another gear in the clock. After all, there is no beginning, no end; the wheel of time will continue to turn my friends. Sometimes I find myself looking back on the past and comparing it to my current situations and I've noticed a pattern. A lot of the time I wish I could go back to when I was happier, when things were seemingly perfect and relive those glorious moments. Generally, I'm not one to dwell on the past, but to bring these moments back to me in the present or 'fix what's been broken' will prove to be a rather daunting task to say the least, but worth every step.

My family will always be worthy.

I am not. I am alone.

_–_ Optimus Prime.

The End.

~ Lavenderpaw ~


End file.
